Month: May 2010

Shaping the War Narrative: Tyler Ginter’s “What is Combat Camera?”

[Editor’s Note: we were so taken last week by Tyler Ginter’s “Why We Fight” short that we decided to post another short video of his today.  It’s a video entitled “What is Combat Camera,” and we asked LFM Contributor ‘Max Garuda’ to comment on it.  ‘Max’ is a veteran of multiple UN-sponsored enforcement actions, and is an expert in the areas of new media and national security.]

“A well-focused Combat Cameraman can tip the scales in the battle for words, deeds and images. Combat Camera in most cases is the main effort.” -Maj. Matthew Yandura, 173rd ABCT Information Operations Officer

By Max Garuda. For a mini-doc/internal promotional piece, “What is Combat Camera” is great.  Excellent production values, nicely edited, and showcasing some great photography.  But since Ginter has distributed it via Vimeo to a wider viewership than its original, small, DOD (Department of Defense) – internal audience, it’s worth looking at for broader implications.

The most striking statement and image comes early in the piece.  The narrator, Major Yandura, commends the combat cameraman, stating that “combat camera soldiers think differently, but more importantly they see the battlefield differently”.  It’s this difference that makes them a force multiplier for unit commanders and grants them the basic toolkit to become effective strategic communicators.

The most striking image in the entire 4 minute video punctuates Yandura’s compliment:  a soldier in digital cammies rests on one knee in foreground, his back to the camera, facing a housing compound that fills the entire background of the photo.  The contrast of the grey-clad soldier and the monochromatic tan compound is striking, and highlights how out-of-place the soldier seems.  At the same time, this image shows a different battlefield than that which CNN or Al-Jazeera is likely to show.  No menacing bearded and robe-clad Al-Qaeda fighters training with automatic weapons and RPGs; no running, shooting and chaos.  Simplicity, calm and domesticity prevail, reminding us that there are everyday people trying to live their lives amidst the raging conflict around them. Continue reading Shaping the War Narrative: Tyler Ginter’s “What is Combat Camera?”

Hollywood + Indie Round-up, 5/25

Rosie Huntington to replace Megan Fox in 'Transformers 3.'

By Jason Apuzzo. I was kidding the other day when I said that “I’m sure [Michael] Bay’s people have a million Victoria’s Secret models on speed-dial that they can call on for the next  [Transformers] film” in the wake of the Megan Fox firing.  And it turns out … Bay has hired a Victoria’s Secret model.  She’s a lustrous Brit named Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.  THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO READ LIBERTAS … WE PREDICTED IT HERE FIRST AND WE’RE ON TOP OF THIS STORY.  No word on whether Ms. Huntington-Whiteley has a personality.  We’ll see.  Fox News is also doing some speculation on the future of Megan Fox’s career.  She’ll do fine, but perhaps she should hold off on calling her directors ‘Hitler,’ and for safety’s sake confine her comparisons strictly to ‘Idi Amin.’

• The long, sad decline of 24 into left-wing drivel is now over as the show mercifully ends.  What this show has needed the past few seasons is not so much Jack Bauer as Jack Kevorkian.

• New Sex and the City 2 rumored to present “puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East.” Glad to here they’re brave enough to go there; still not enough to get me to watch Sarah Jessica Parker.  [Aside: I’m having flashbacks of Jewel of the Nile here.  Didn’t that just hit Blu-Ray?]  Also: a Middle-Eastern guy who was an on-set extra in Sex and the City 2 gripes about the experience in the New York Times today.  He doesn’t mention whether he still cashed his paycheck.

• Orlando Bloom cast as the ‘villain’ in new Three Musketeers remake.  Wow – what could be more frightening?

• Dominic Cooper to play Iron Man’s father in Captain America – which will be shot in London.  Maybe Tony Stark’s dad could stop in on Sherlock Holmes while he’s in town.

• New, ‘modern’ take on the Nativity story coming down the pike.  (See here and here).  It’s set in the 70’s and apparently stars Bette Midler.  Rumor mill has Sally Field cast as Pontius Pilate.

"Actually, pre-modern Christians ALWAYS wore acid-washed jeans."

• Mindless historical revisionism fuels pot shots against Christianity in new film Agora starring Rachel Weisz. Film twists history and depicts angry, murderous Christian mobs destroying Library of Alexandria (?); peddles bogus analogy between radical Islam and contemporary Christianity.  I think Govindini will be posting on this later.  The only upside here is that the film is getting bad reviews (see here and here), and that no one will see it because Rachel Weisz isn’t a real star.

• In the wake of the Shrek disappointment, blogger Vadim Rizov asks ‘Are children’s movies made by people who hate kids?’ Good question.

And in more pleasant news …

"I'm out!"

• Filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been freed on probation.  Thank God.  (See here and here.)  He’s out on something like $20,000 bail, and there’s still going to be some farce of a trial.  Somebody please send him Dershowitz.

• A new documentary on the murderous communist thug Nicolae Ceausescu, called The Autobiography of  Nicolae Ceausescu, recently played at Cannes.  I’ve seen the trailer, and it looks interesting in a kind of arch/satiric way.  There’s a round-up of generally positive reviews of the film here today.  We’ll try to review it down the line.

• Our friend and LFM Contributor Joe Bendel has a nice review up today of a new Turkish film called The Breath that deals with terrorism along the Turkish-Iraqi border, so check that out.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

“The Adventures of Obama Man,” Episode 1

[Editor’s Note: this film contains some adult humor. Viewer discretion advised.]

By Jason Apuzzo.  Almost 18 months into the Obama Administration, Hollywood has become a kind of no-fly zone with respect to satire directed at The One.  The idea around LA seems to be that Obama’s preternatural ‘cool’ and pseudo-revolutionary ambitions render him above normal satire.  How, in effect, does one satirize a bodhisattva?  There would appear to be no easy angle, no obvious comedic hook on Obama if you believe this line.  Barack’s genius is so manifest, one could no more satirize him than one could satirize Miles Davis while he was recording Kind of Blue. Right?

Not quite.  In the independent film world, where filmmaking is more adventurous than it is in Hollywood right now, the divine afflatus surrounding Obama is not so bright.  Witness this episode of “The Adventures of Obama Man” above.  “The Adventures of Obama Man” takes as its point of departure Obama’s early years in the 1980’s when he lived in New York City – years about which we know very little … until now.

Obama as lifestyle product.

What I enjoy about this little short film is its simplicity and understated humor.  The depiction of Obama as a plastic doll, I think, directly and elegantly captures what many of us think about Barack: that his zeal for radical reform is matched only by his vacuity – the sense that he is, basically, a plastic man.

More than that, though: ‘Obama’ has become a kind of fetishized object – like an iPad or an iPhone – around which people orient a more ‘progressive’ and ‘enlightened’ lifestyle for themselves. ‘Obama’ the Man long ago gave way to ‘Obama’ the lifestyle/fashion accessory, similar in function and tone to a Louis Vuitton bag (both are stylish carriers of what is usually, on closer inspection, clutter and junk).  It’s appropriate, then, that filmmaker Chilembwe Mason would depict ‘Obama Man’ here as a doll one can transport around like a totemic symbol – redolant of hipness, sophistication, ‘cool’ … with nothing really inside, other than a few pre-programmed phrases and a stiff finger pointing to an imaginary future.

Enjoy  the short.

The Golden Age of the Nerd

Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera from Superbad.

By David Ross. Back in the day, all kinds of people were plausibly brainy society girls like Katherine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story, working girls like Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday – but in our day the mind itself has been knocked from its pedestal, and ostentatious braininess or even quick-wittedness has become a form of social disease. The socially acceptable posture is an easygoing indifference to little things like knowledge, logic, and consistency (“Dude, take it easy, what’s the difference.”). All of this is implicit in the evolution of the 50’s egghead (object of bemused respect) into the 80’s nerd (victim of locker-room sadism and prom-night ridicule). Continue reading The Golden Age of the Nerd

Hollywood Round-up, 5/24

"I agree, Admiral - blockade the Straights of Hormuz."

By Jason Apuzzo.  • Paris Hilton signs on as celebrity ambassador for the USO, vows to visit troops overseas. Good news!  Taliban responds by unfriending her on Facebook.

• Even in 2010, enlightened-progressive Hollywood still casting white people as ethnic minorities, says LA Times.  Jake Gyllenhaal as a ‘Prince of Persia’?  Sure!  While we’re at it it, let’s cast Joe Biden as Flava Flav.

• Miss USA explains recent photos – and her stance on illegal immigration – on Fox News.  Fox News still waiting to grill her on the GATT tax and Elena Kagan.

• Crave Online posts 5 ways to improve the next season of V.  My advice?  Set the show in the 80’s and bring back Marc Singer.

• Ken Loach pops off about the Iraq War at Cannes.  I thought he was dead.

• Shrek overdose now official as sequel disappoints at box office.  Plus: Dreamworks stock drops as a result. Dreamworks begs Christopher Nolan to reboot franchise.

• Robert Rodriguez’s pseudo-controversial Machete looking for Texas tax incentives.  Doesn’t Rodriguez know?  It’s still cheaper to shoot in Mexico, and the beer’s better.

Juliette Binoche at Cannes.

• Christian mega-churches are the new training ground for American Idol singers.  I also read somewhere that Christian mega-churches are the new training ground for NFL defensive backs.  Is there a connection?

• Michael Caine speaks out about promoting the UK’s Conservative Party.  They should get him to a Tea Party rally dressed as Harry Palmer.

• AND IN MORE SERIOUS NEWS … Cannes Film Festival announces its prize winners (see here and here) under cloud of ongoing Jafar Panahi jailing.  Juliette Binoche accepts her best actress prize holding “Jafar Panahi” sign.  Panahi reportedly may be granted parole by Iranian government.  The noted filmmaker has reportedly begun a hunger strike.  Read this 2006 interview with Panahi, in which he declares that his films are not political. Sign the petition to Free Jafar Panahi.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

ALSO: Special thanks to ‘John Boot’ and Pajamas Media for their article today on the re-launch of Libertas. Welcome to Pajamas Media readers.

UPDATE: Special thanks to Lars Larson today for having LFM’s Govindini Murty on his national show to talk about LFM.  Welcome to all of Lars’ listeners.

Faith & Activism in New Orleans: A Village Called Versailles

Republican Congressman Joseph Cao (right) along with protester.

By Joe Bendel. Most armchair political analysts were stunned when Joseph Cao, a Vietnamese-American Republican, defeated scandal-plagued Democrat William “Big Freeze” Jefferson to represent nearly the entire city of New Orleans in Congress. Alas, party registration will likely represent a challenge for Rep. Cao’s re-election.  However, he will have an important base of support in the Crescent City’s Vietnamese community, whose strength and resiliency has emerged as a major post-Katrina political development.

Documenting the unexpected rise of the New Orleans East neighborhood that challenged an out-of-touch municipal government and ultimately elected the nation’s first Vietnamese-American congressional representative, S. Leo Chiang’s A Village Called Versailles (see the trailer here) airs this coming Tueday (check your local listings) as part of the current season of Independent Lens on most PBS outlets.

Many of the older Vietnamese residents of the Versailles neighborhood (named after a large housing complex in Eastern New Orleans) had already endured two painful dislocations. Mostly from two predominantly Catholic towns in the North, they had first fled the North Vietnamese Communists to the South, only to come to America as refugees following the fall of Saigon. Indeed, the Katrina evacuation brought back many painful memories.

However, this time they returned – reclaiming their homes and neighborhood – in large measure thanks to the unifying role played by Father Vien Nguyen and the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, their rebuilding efforts were nearly sabotaged when then “Mayor” Ray Nagin used dubious emergency powers to dump an environmentally questionable landfill in their midst. Continue reading Faith & Activism in New Orleans: A Village Called Versailles